Aug. 10, 2010

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The LMU men's water polo team will once again face a schedule loaded with the nation's best as they enter the 2010 college water polo season. The Lions will begin defense of their three straight Western Water Polo Association championships when they head to the UC San Diego Triton Invitational on Sept. 4-5.

The Triton Invitational has become a traditional start to the men's water polo season, and 2010 will be no different. The Lions lose just two seniors from last year's team that went 19-9 overall and a perfect 14-0 in WWPA play. They will open with University of the Pacific at 10:45 a.m., followed by the first of several meetings against WWPA rival UC San Diego at 2:15 p.m. On Sunday, the Lions will face two more WWPA foes, taking on Air Force at 9 a.m., then concluding the tournament against La Verne at 12:30 p.m.

Pacific finished the 2009 season ranked 13th in the nation while the Tritons finished 11th and Air Force 17th. Playing ranked teams right out of the gate to start the season begins a season-long trend for the Lions. The Lions will play at least 18 games against ranked opponents on the year.

That trend will continue the following weekend when the Lions face school rival Pepperdine, who finished 2009 ranked 6th, on Saturday, Sept. 11 in Malibu at 12:00 p.m. The Lions will then return to Los Angeles on Sept. 12 for their home opener against defending national champion USC at 1 p.m.

The rest of the Lions home schedule includes WWPA foe Pomona-Pitzer on Oct. 14 at 3 p.m., a doubleheader against Air Force and Chapman on Oct. 16 and then the home finale against Claremont on Saturday, Oct. 30.

The Lions road schedule is a daunting one as they will once again compete in the tradition rich NorCal Invitational on Sept. 18-19 at Cal and then the SoCal Invitational on Oct. 2-3 at UCLA.

Other road head-to-head games include at No. 2 UCLA (Sept. 25), back to UC San Diego (Oct. 23), back to Berkeley to take on No. 3 Cal (Nov. 4), at WWPA foes No. 16 UC Davis and No. 14 Santa Clara (Nov. 5 and 6, respectively) and concluding with No. 8 Long Beach State (Nov. 11).

THe 2010 WWPA Championships will be hosted by Santa Clara on Nov. 19-21, with the winner earning the automatic bid to the National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship hosted by Cal on Dec. 4-5.